Inside
NCR We
have designs on the future
Since its founding in 1964, the
National Catholic Reporter has been consistent in its mission to
proclaim and embody the eternal message of renewal and transformation that is
near the heart of Christianity and was most eloquently expressed in our time at
the Second Vatican Council.
This world is in flux, though, so the presentation of the message
is shaped by the ebb and flow of events, tastes, personalities and other signs
of the times. Newspapers, like everything else, change. While the essential
story remains the same, ever new and ageless, the style of writing changes and
so does the visual appearance of the paper.
This newspaper was born on great big sheets -- called broadsheets.
After a few years the format was changed to the smaller tabloid page. In the
past 34 years the design has undergone many transformations. These are most
evident on the front page but not confined to that. Some years ago, for
example, we moved from squeezing as many stories as possible onto the front
page to a more user-friendly easing of the reader into the paper with visual
enticements and other signposts.
We have been working on yet another new design, and the first of
the newly designed issues is in your hands(or will soon be). It is not a
startling change, rather another nuanced step in a gradual evolution. We hope
readers will be comfortable with it. We have no doubt that some will like it
and others wont -- and we heartily invite you to express your opinion
either way.
Ill leave you to make most of the discoveries for
yourselves. However, a couple of points may hint how the process worked. On the
occasion of our last redesign, in 1989, we put special emphasis on the
NCR logo. We did so for various reasons, especially for the fact that
thats what most people seem to call us anyway. Now, 10 years later, we
have returned to an emphasis on the original National Catholic Reporter.
Most staff members argued thats a better statement of who we are. No
doubt, many of you will still talk about NCR, and well know what
you mean, and it does trip better off the tongue.
Another wrinkle is an index on page 2. Some said readers
dont need it, others said readers are in a hurry nowadays, want to be
helped to find their favorite page or author. If so, we aim to coddle you.
Unlike the picking of popes or the
practice of infallibility, we have no confidence that the Holy Spirit takes a
direct hand in the design any more than the content of Catholic newspapers,
including ours. So we searched most of the known universe and finally found
design expert Tony Sutton.
Although we found him in Ontario, Canada, Sutton is by birth --
and accent -- British: a globetrotter who spent years in the journalistic
trenches, including 14 years in South Africa in the dangerous business of
exposing the evils of apartheid, before setting up New Design Associates in
Ontario in 1991.
A consultant who travels the world in the course of his everyday
business, Sutton is editor of Design magazine, also editor of a
publication called Nine on Ten, a reference to an easy to read size of
type, and has recently established his own book publishing business.
We are grateful to Tony, whose two visits to Kansas City caused a
tornado of creativity and energy. He has threatened to monitor us from far
Canada lest we fall below the high visual standards to which he has challenged
us.
The design project will be carried on, and perhaps elevated to a
higher plane by NCRs own Layout Editor Toni-Ann Ortiz and Layout
Assistant Matt Kantz.
Cross Currents
(www.aril.org/) has been one of the most prestigious intellectual
magazines on the Catholic scene for 48 years. Founded by Joe and Sally Cunneen
in 1950, it has promoted an adventuresome and cutting-edge Christianity.
Sally, after some years, went on to be an author, lecturer and
college professor, not to mention a mother.
And now, on. Oct 1, Joe is retiring as coeditor. Also retiring are
two other Cross Currents coeditors who came aboard in the meantime: Nancy
Malone and Bill Birmingham. They are all to be honored Oct. 4 at a shindig at
Barat House, Purchase, N.Y. The occasion will be an appropriate mix of the
intellectual -- addresses such as Does Faith Have a Future? -- and
the convivial (meaning dinner and such).
Joe Cunneen has been NCRs movie critic for several
years, an undertaking from which he is not retiring. We wish Joe, a man
of galactic interests and talents -- one of his favorite projects is
championing French priest novelist Jean Sulivan -- a happy retirement, if
thats what it is. We commissioned our in-house artist, Celebration
Editor Pat Marrin, to do Cunneen for the occasion.
The events that led to this
weeks cover story began with a Plowshares action on May 17 -- the 30th
anniversary of the 1968 burning of draft files by the famed Catonsville 9 --
when five brave souls took hammers and vials of their own blood and set upon a
B-52 bomber at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. Our story focuses on
two of the five, Frs. Frank Cordaro and Larry Morlan, who passed through the
NCR offices this summer on a national consciousness-raising tour.
The story of Asias economic
disarray is an eye-opener in many ways, and a reminder of the churchs
willingness to shout for justice when others are trying only to maximize their
profits or cut their losses. Author Dennis Coday writes in a cover note:
Although the powers-that-be can sometimes dismiss church people/activists
as flaky on real world issues, the issues presented and stands
taken at the Seoul Forum cannot be so easily dismissed.
World opinion seems to be falling in line with the church people
at Seoul, Coday explains.
For example, Malaysias Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
announced Sept. 1 that his country would impose strict currency controls within
the country. Meanwhile, in a Sept. 7 cover story in Fortune magazine
(www.pathfinder.com/fortune/pfortune/0907edd.html), MIT economist and
free-market guru Paul Krugman denounced IMF policies in Asia and advocated that
Asian countries impose currency controls temporarily to halt further economic
deterioration.
The Young Feminist Network story is
of special interest at a time when young people are alleged to be losing
interest in the church. The group can be contacted through the Womens
Ordination Conference at 703-352-1006, or by E-mail at
woc96@aol.com.
-- Michael Farrell
National Catholic Reporter, October 2,
1998
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